Category: Geek

I love how obscure bugs get fixed sometimes. One of our bIPlog writers was having trouble overwriting uploaded files in a Movable Type blog. It just failed with a “permission denied” error no matter how many permissions I gave the temp dir. We run Apache on Win2K, while Ben Trott at MT is a *nix guy. Everyone was coming up stumped. My question got fanned out, and eventually a friend of a friend on the east coast speculated that it was not a perms issue at all, but file handle flushing. Forwarded his response to Ben, who shot back a perl fix minutes later. And we’re in business. The writer is happy and MT is a tiny bit better. Kind of amazing to see this thing blossom from a normal user uncovering an unknown bug to a coast-to-coast correspondence between strangers, people helping out for nothing but the promise of a dozen Krispy Kremes. People are cool.

Tried to install the ImageMagick perl module for OS X last night, CPAN crapped out. Tried to compile the source manually but no go there either. Discovered that the indefatigable Marc Liyanage has a binary package installer for it – sets up the CLI binary and the perl module all at once, two clicks, 20 seconds.

With Image::Magick detected on the server, Movable Type gives you a few more options in the file upload dialog, offering to create a thumbnail for you, then all the HTML and JavaScript to connect thumb to popup. I’ve always generated thumbnails in iPhoto or Photshop and uploaded them separately. This rocks (yes, I know this particular image doesn’t really need thumbnailing – just testing).

That’s me on the daily bike commute to work.

Experimenting intermittently with mail server software for OS X lately and thought I had settled on Post.Office. At first seemed like it was going to be cake to set up, despite the butt-ugly 1982 design of the config UI. But after my IPs / hostname / domain changed, all hell broke loose. It became impossible to get into the http config and its daemon started chasing its tail in a CPU-chewing loop after following a tech support person’s suggestion to change my hostname. This morning woke up to find the machine grinding at a crawl and a bunch of rogue post.office processes limping along.

Uninstalled with extreme prejudice and set up CommuniGate Pro instead. Configured in minutes with half dozen birdhouse addresses for friends and family, relay blocking and SMTP-Auth set up just the way I wanted it. Slick. Had looked into the built-in sendmail and the qmail alternative, but I just don’t have the time or inclination to wrestle.

So now we’re in full swing with OS X as a multi-purpose home file server, print server, music server, web and email server. Speakeasy provides connectivity, ZoneEdit does the DNS, and the Mac does the rest.

Part #37 of the migration plan is in place. Just set up a DNS record at ZoneEdit and pointed my registrar there. In the next 24-48 hours, the birdhouse ‘A’ record will be pointing at my OS X box and I’ll have local control of birdhouse for the first time (this domain was registered in ’94!). After things settle a bit I’ll point the MX record here as well (using Post.Office for POP and SMTP).

Thought long and hard about running my own DNS as well, but in the end, couldn’t think of a good reason to do it. ZoneEdit is free, has redundant fail-safe servers all over the world, and will store your domain mail if POP at the other end of the MX record is down.

If you don’t see posts here for a couple of days it’s because I’m posting to the new site and your DNS change hasn’t rippled through yet. Look for a “Hosted on OS X” badge on the new site that will signify you’re seeing the new version.

ORA blog: Four machines on the internal network needed DHCP addresses, while one needed to use a public static IP. So how do you configure a LinkSys router to handle two subnets at once? Answer: you don’t. Instead, stick a hub inline between the DSL modem and the router. One port on the hub can then connect to the server (which is of course now without firewall!) and another port into the router’s WAN port.

        DSL Modem
            |
            |           
 ----Hub Crossover Port------
|                            |
|                            |
Hub Port                  Hub Port 
   |                         |
   |                         |
 Server                 Router WAN Port
                             |
                         -------------     
                        |             |
                        |             |
                     DHCP Comp.    DHCP Comp.   

Tip of the hat to Kurt on this one.

More…

Update, next morning: Everything groovy, except… the unanticipated consequence of all this is that I’ve now taken the server off the home subnet. And that means the SliMP3 suddenly can’t find its mothership, printer sharing goes away, and access to our Drop Boxes and other AppleTalk/Rendezvous sharing goes away. We all still have internet access, but I’ve traded one set of problems for another. I think the best solution then would be to just use Port Forwarding via the router for server needs, then someday set up a dedicated server that doesn’t require subnet access.

Amazing how quickly a baby on the lap whapping randomly at the keyboard can turn the simplest shell command into mincemeat. That’ll be, uh, Ctrl-C time again, Miles.

Finally online with Speakeasy DSL, today marking two weeks since we were suddenly knocked off our previous provider (don’t you think it might make sense to provide the customer with new equipment before disconnecting their previous service?). Two weeks of dialup is more than enough to drive home just how badly you never want to return to the Pleistocene.

The funny thing is that Speakeasy still didn’t get the modem to us as promised today — screwup #17 meant it wasn’t going to arrive until Saturday. On a tip from an Activations specialist, I tried one more time to sync the old Alcatel and whoa – it locked in (I had stopped looking for sync days ago). A few minutes later had a nice cocktail of static and DHCP addresses on the home network. 1.5/768 — not only is it great throughput, but latency seems SO much lower than it was with the old provider — I’m guessing better DNS caching. Zoom zoom. We’re drunk on bandwidth.

Despite the fact that I got off to a very bad start with Speakeasy, the people there have been incredibly gracious and supportive and apologetic. And the services rock. My acct came with one static IP, which I used for the router. I wanted an additional static to run a domain from home, went to their site, ordered it online, and it was available immediately — beautiful.

betips.net has been successfully transferred into the hands of Chris Simmons at BeOS Journal. Chris has been great and I have confidence the site will be in good hands with him. I feel much better about having it maintained by someone who still uses and promotes BeOS.

Weblogsky wonders what would happen if we stopped thinking of frequencies as always being in danger of stepping on the toes of nearby transmissions. IOTW, two radio stations too close to one another will step on each other’s broadcasts – we’re all familiar with that problem. But what if the radio transmitters and receivers had the “intelligence” of a router on the internet — the ability to sort out bits that constitute a like stream? The problem of interference goes away, and the spectrum is blown wide open, available to anyone for anything. Hmmm…